Homer and Me

At the risk of turning this into the TIME: China and Self-Congratulations Blog, I am compelled to announce that I have reached a journalistic milestone. Is it the Pulitzer? Alas, no. To win one of those you have to work at a U.S.-based newspaper. And be really good. (On that point, congratulations to Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of the New York Times for their recent Pulitzer win for the “Toxic Pipeline” series.) Is it a Human Rights Press Award? No, not that either. Instead, I have been honored by one of our China Blog readers by having my head morphed into that of Homer Simpson. I can only say that I am deeply flattered. While Homer and I share an appreciation for donuts and a certain beverage, his cultural influence is vastly greater than mine.

As to that photo, the folks at the US and China Today Blog (its motto reads in part: “Join us on this awefully important journey.” I guess “Screw spell-check” was taken) are not the only ones to point out its, ah, deficiencies. My own mother and father, who have agreed on little since the early ’90s, each told me over Christmas that I needed to change it.

I will point out that unlike Homer I do actually have hair, as you can see from this video, but it was conveniently cropped out by the editors. I blame Western media bias.

Interestingly, the US and China Today blog appears to be blocked in China. Maybe the net nanny has some other ideas about this awfully important journey.